Chapter 100
#Chapter 100: Demonic Sword Forte (2) - Quest
The crown prince said.
“This incarnation is under stricter conditions than usual.”
First condition.
At minimum, 6th-tier combat power.
“This alone is no easy feat. With no special external conditions, the highest level one can reach purely as a combat specialist is probably around the upper end of the 5th tier. Librarian Ernst displayed the power of the 6th tier, but that was only possible because a number of difficult conditions were in place.”
The existence of a workshop that could be modified and synchronized over a long period of time. A main body with only ordinary-person-level combat power. An opponent who would come charging into the workshop on its own.
Only after all of the above conditions were met could Ernst display the power of the 6th tier.
If Ernst hadn’t had enough time to modify the library, or if Eris hadn’t bought him time until they reached it, he would have fallen without even getting a chance to use that power.
And that instability is a clear disqualification for a bodyguard.
Second condition.
The form and status must be suitable for a bodyguard.
“Even if there were an incarnation that could freely use 6th-tier power, whether that incarnation could stay by the protectee’s side continuously is another matter. Even if it tried to guard them as a student, situations might arise where the two would inevitably be separated by various external factors.”
To keep watch by someone’s side ‘continuously’ is difficult in many ways unless that person agrees.
Just look at novels—there are all sorts of cases where the person being protected finds it stifling, goes off without a bodyguard, and ends up in horrible trouble. Is there any law saying a hero’s descendant can’t do the same?
Even if the person cooperated, 24-hour close protection would be far too difficult without Sky Academy’s cooperation, and if you had to sneak into the academy in the first place, there was no way you’d get its cooperation.
In other words, the new incarnation had to have a form and status that would let it stay right by the protectee’s side at all times without seeming unnatural to outsiders.
Extremely difficult conditions.
A problem so difficult one wondered whether it was even possible to satisfy all of them.
Therefore, the crown prince declared.
“—As long as it isn’t human.”
By giving up active movement and instead strengthening the protectee purely as a weapon, he could stably wield 6th-tier combat power.
If it wasn’t human, it wouldn’t be caught by Sky Academy’s security checks, and as a weapon, it wouldn’t be strange to keep it always by the protectee’s side.
In other words, if it became a sword, everything would be solved!
Lucidra, who had been listening to the crown prince’s spirited speech from the side, thought.
‘What kind of doglike nonsense—no, that’d be insulting to dogs.’
Weren’t they originally trying to decide what kind of incarnation to make?
Why, in the middle of talking about an incarnation, had it suddenly become, “Well, it can’t be helped. We’re going with a sword here!”?
In many ways it didn’t make sense, but there was nothing to be done.
Because that was the crown prince.
The problem was.
“If I really, really do that contract thing, can I maybe just coast through the academy?”
《…….》
It seemed this protectee was not an easy target either.
After grabbing the popcorn and drinks the crown prince had mentioned, Lucidra slipped into spectator mode from the shadows.
***
Here, let’s talk about common sense for a moment.
If a talking sword suddenly appears and starts spouting things like, “Let’s make a contract,” “I’ll give you power,” and “If you don’t contract with me, you’re in danger,” what would a sensible person do?
Usually, they’d be suspicious.
They might feel fear, or be shocked enough to ask someone else for help.
For one thing, both the sword’s existence and what it was saying were suspicious beyond belief.
In that regard, the girl named Pina Ballestia was indeed different from ordinary people.
It wasn’t that she felt no fear or suspicion.
But.
‘...Huh? Wait, is this maybe a chance?’
Listening to the story of an unidentified magic sword(?) could be considered ‘dangerous.’
But making a mess of the Sky Academy entrance exam is definitely ‘dangerous.’
Especially because it was all too obvious how her dad would react.
「Ah! To think I’d let my one and only daughter get this bad without doing anything—I am unfit to be a father!」
「How can I discuss the affairs of the nation when I can’t even raise one daughter properly! I’ve negotiated with His Majesty so I can take a break from work for a while, and I’ll use the rest of my time for you, Pina!」
「Strict diet control! Sweet desserts are off the table! No late-night snacks! No sleeping in! Consistent physical training! Morning runs every day on the dot! Rest assured, my daughter! I shall raise you into a proper warrior who brings no shame to the Ballestia name!」
‘Kyaaaaaaaaaa!!’
Pina screamed inwardly.
Just imagining it made her hands and feet tremble, and she felt like she might vomit.
Basically an introvert who liked locking herself in her room and lazing around, Pina would have no choice but to face a one-on-one boot camp with a hyper-extroverted father who reeked of the army and sweat just from breathing—that was nothing short of hell on earth.
Seeing Pina’s pale face and apparently misunderstanding the situation, the magic sword calmly spoke.
《I know what you’re thinking…. Surely it seems suspicious and frightening beyond belief, but, young lady…. I do not speak lies…. So…》
“Uh, um, Magic Sword, sir? That sort of thing doesn’t really matter.”
《...Hmm?》
“If I really, really do that contract thing, can I maybe just coast through the academy?”
《…….》
The magic sword fell silent for a moment.
In the meantime, Pina had somehow crawled across the bed and gotten right up close to the magic sword.
With shadows under her eyes, strangely bloodshot eyes, and trembling lips, she looked, if one exaggerated a little, like a junkie on the hunt for a fix.
“I-I’m not asking for much! Just a little above the middle! A score where, when I take my report card home, I won’t get praised but I won’t get scolded either!”
If the magic sword had eyes, they would surely have been swimming through the air as it pondered its answer.
After a short pause, the magic sword answered.
《Of course it is possible…. Young lady, if you contract with me, even first place would be no problem….》
“Ah, that’s okay. Just a little above the middle is fine.”
Pina drew a strangely firm line.
Hoh, the magic sword took interest.
《Why is that…. Are you saying that unless it’s the very best won through your own true skill, it has no meaning…?》
Pina shook her head.
And said.
“If I get too high a score by accident, I might have to stand in front of the auditorium as the freshman representative, you know!”
She strongly emphasized that she absolutely did not want that, crossing her two index fingers into an X.
《Hmm….》
The magic sword had plenty to say about the matter, but since she was willing to contract voluntarily, there was no reason to refuse.
In the end, after quietly discarding the “28 Reasons You Must Contract with the Magic Sword Right Now” it had prepared for use if Pina hesitated, the magic sword spoke.
《Understood…. I am the magic sword Forte…. Contract holder, I shall become your power and protect you from harm….》
“I’m Pina Ballestia! Nice to meet you! Ah, but, um, may I ask one question?”
《Ask away….》
“Um, why have you been dragging out the ends of your sentences since earlier? It’s not like it’s really bothering me or anything, it’s just kind of on my mind.”
《...I’ll be careful from now on.》
Magic Sword Forte.
Hero’s descendant Pina.
Contract complete.
***
If there were a place called the ‘Entrance to the Sky,’ what kind of scene would people imagine?
A gigantic temple made of white stone? The summit of an endless mountain? A far-off tower where mysterious mana swirls about?
Unfortunately, the Sky Gate did not look so splendid.
There was only a broad plain. And at its center, only a single shabby-looking wooden staff was planted.
Those who visited without any prior knowledge would look around anxiously, wondering if they had come to the right place, and only after confirming that quite a few others were waiting for something there would they, still half-doubting, stay put.
The number of people lingering on the plain exceeded several hundred, but unless they had arrived together from the start, it was rare for them to speak to one another.
A more fundamental wariness, rather than mere shyness.
That was only natural.
Because everyone here was a potential rival.
Some of them would become comrades who would spend quite a long time together in the future, but that was only after passing the entrance exam.
Since they might meet each other again later, they didn’t show open hostility. But at this point, they also had no intention of being friendly.
Amid that subtle atmosphere, Pina Ballestia was quietly wearing a tearful face.
‘My stomach hurts….’
It wasn’t as if loud yelling or curses were flying openly.
But the glances and crackling tension moving around almost unnoticed were enough to place enormous pressure on Pina by themselves.
If there was one thing to be relieved about, maybe it was that she hadn’t been left alone in this uncomfortable space.
Pina muttered softly enough that the people around her wouldn’t hear.
“Magic Sword, Magic Sword.”
《What is it? Do you have something to say?》
A voice that sounded as if it were speaking directly into her head.
Instead of the somewhat distant way of speaking it had used when they first met, it sounded more familiar, and Pina let out a hee-hee laugh.
For all that the magic sword was suspicious in many ways, it gave the impression that it wasn’t dismissing her words and was respecting them.
“Magic Sword, do you know much about the entrance exam?”
Pina and Forte still hadn’t shared that many conversations.
To begin with, they had only just met a few days before the exam, and because they had to keep an eye on the people around them, there simply wasn’t enough time.
《I’m not a complete novice at it.》
“Then do you know the contents of the exam too? No one at home tells me anything.”
It was the sort of family that would even turn down the academy’s special-admission offer.
There was no way they’d use cheating methods like leaking the exam contents in advance so she could prepare, and what Pina knew about Sky Academy was mostly in the realm of rumors.
Things like people dying during the exam, or if a hundred students enter, fewer than fifty graduate.
《I know some of it. But there’s no point in talking about it yet.》
“Why?”
《Because the detailed contents change depending on who the examiner is.》
It was right when Pina was about to ask for the specifics.
“Huh? H-hey, look!”
“So that rumor was true!”
“It really is enormous.”
Murmurs from the crowd. And a shadow falling overhead.
When Pina blankly looked up at the sky, something descending from way up above entered her field of vision.
A giant island slowly descending through the clouds.
“Waaah….”
Massive objects sometimes distort your sense of distance and speed.
The island descending from the sky was moving extremely fast, but the people on the ground didn’t readily perceive it that way.
Some sharp-eyed people hurried to the edge of the plain, worried they might be crushed beneath the island, but that proved unnecessary.
The huge floating island did not fully land on the ground and instead stopped while maintaining a certain distance.
People were relieved that they had avoided being flattened into dried squid by the island, but at the same time they were puzzled.
“But how do we get up there?”
“Jump? A ladder? Or should we throw some kind of hook and hang on?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Even at that size, it looks like it’d be taller than several dozen floors of an ordinary building.”
As if answering that doubt, the wooden staff planted in the center of the plain began to writhe.
The wooden staff rapidly swelled in size, as if a living thing’s growth had been accelerated to the extreme, and soon became a gigantic tower that firmly supported the underside of the floating island.
As if linking the sky and the earth.
The spontaneously formed tower had an open entrance with no door, and some of those waiting on the ground immediately headed toward it without hesitation.
The fact that they moved quickly without even looking flustered made them seem like people who had prior knowledge.
Those who realized what was happening a beat late hurried after them, fearing they’d be left behind, and Pina cautiously approached the entrance as well.
And the moment she crossed the threshold and stepped inside the tower.
【Quest: Climb the Tower】
【Clear Condition: Reach the Floating Island】
【Time Limit: 3 Days】
【Reward: Proof of Passing Sky Academy’s First Entrance Exam】
【Special Note: No preemptive attacks inside the tower. Violation sends you back to the 1st floor】
Suddenly, before Pina’s eyes, something like a translucent square glass pane appeared.
Pina wasn’t the only one who had seen something similar; the other candidates were also blinking in confusion or waving their hands through the air.
Just then, the magic sword’s voice came to her.
《Seeing that reaction, it seems a quest has appeared. From now on, keep a close eye on that translucent panel. You’ll get sick of seeing it throughout academy life.》
A 5th tier is equivalent to a domain.
A 6th tier is equivalent to a nation.
And the 7th tier, the Transcendent... overwrites part of the world.
The law left behind by the 『Sage of the Sky』 was: ‘Effort must always be met with a corresponding reward.’
To put it in the crown prince’s terms, the world of quests and rewards revealed a fragment of that principle.